They belong to the group of those whose body is the working tool. Sleeves rolled up, for years these men and women manipulated, carried, pulled, lifted, pushed, pedaled, assembled… rolling up sleeves is the marker of this working class.
An omnipresent motif in social, patriotic and feminist painting – like the famous Rosie the Riveter showing off her biceps – it evokes physical effort and those generations of trimers whose fate also seems bent, rolled up on itself. . The beauty of the silhouettes thus sculpted makes us forget the pain and pain that shaped them…
Rolling up your sleeves can express your good disposition… but also evoke a certain casualness.
Taking up this gesture on their own, the workers in the tertiary sector, white-collar Stakhanovites, roll up their shirt sleeves when new objectives strike the hour to give a boost. Political imagery is also full of these moments of the electoral campaign when the candidate drops his jacket. Sleeves rolled up, showing that he hides nothing in his lining, he tries to play his cards on the table, straight in the eyes. Rolling up your sleeves can express your good disposition… but also evoke a certain casualness.
This assertive gesture has the advantage of giving faces marked by a sedentary job and lunches in the canteen a more athletic look. Even more, it allows you to play with the different layers of clothing, what the Anglo-Saxons call the art of layering.
It finally makes possible the wearing of clothes that are too big, initially intended for others, as we find in all currents and counter-currents of fashion under the name ofoversized. Oversized trench coats, jackets, jackets, shirts and sweaters, bordering on a clown costume if they were worn as they are, just waiting for a simple lapel to bring the whole thing the missing touch of coquetry, this twist or not side that adjusts the piece to the body and gives it an elegant uniqueness.
